China Policy Journal Volume 1, Number 2, Fall 2019 | Page 26

Chinese Foreign Policy Think Tanks’ Policy Influence
Figure 4: Quarterly Changes of Numbers of CIIS and SIIS Meetings and Numbers
of Central-Level Government Documents Declaring BRI Policy
From March to June 2015, Chinese
President XI Jinping presented a
set of refined principles about BRI on
various international occasions, such
as the Boao Forum for Asia, the Bandung
Asia–Africa Conference, and the
ceremony for signing the AIIB Agreement,
indicating that his BRI ideas
had already developed into a coherent
scheme. Urged by and in pace with President
XI Jinping’s ideas, the BRI policymaking
activities of central ministries
were dramatically accelerated and the
number of policy documents reached
its first peak in the second quarter of
2015, while CIIS and SIIS meetings
reached its first peak on the third quarter
of 2015 because they had to spend
some time on research before they
could organize meetings to discuss and
propose their policy advice. From January
to June 2016, President XI Jinping
took intensive visits to Middle East and
Central and Eastern Europe, promoting
BRI blueprints and signing documents
of intent for joint BRI projects. Against
this background, both the number of
central-level BRI policy documents and
the number of CIIS and SIIS meetings
reached their second peak in the second
quarter of 2016. In the first and second
quarter of 2017, China’s top leadership
built up expectations on the first “Belt
and Road Summit” held on May 14,
2017; therefore, the numbers of policy
documents and CIIS and SIIS meetings
simultaneously reached a new peak in
the second quarter of 2017.
In brief, the above review of the
approximate 3-year of numerical fluctuations
displays a general relevance and
consistency between the overall longterm
trend of these two think tanks’
meetings and the trend of central-level
policy documents. Furthermore, the
records of the past 3 years also indicate
that top leaders’ perceptions and ideas
largely shape the pace, rhythm, and fre-
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